Should drivers in downtown Seattle pay a toll?

As traffic grows ever worse, we're investigating an idea many drivers are sure to hate.

What about charging a toll for anyone who drives a car into downtown Seattle?

Some cities around the world already have so-called congestion charges, including London, where traffic volumes are down and the money goes for extra buses.

Congestion charges around the world

In London, cameras read license plates of cars entering the central city.

From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, drivers pay a toll that's the equivalent of $15 a day.

London introduced a congestion charge in 2003.

"We didn't go first because we thought it would be good fun and get lots of kudos, we moved because we had to," Ken Livingstone, London's mayor at the time, told the Associated Press.

Ten years later, the official estimate showed traffic down about 10 percent.

Over the years, speeds have been slowing as traffic grows again, but congestion-charge supporters say getting around London would be a lot harder without it.

"If we hadn't introduced the congestion charge back in 2003, by now gridlock would be a regular feature of life on our roads," Livingstone said.

In Stockholm, analysts say a congestion charge reduced traffic about 20 percent.

Would a congestion charge work in Seattle?

Bob Pishue, a transportation analyst for the Kirkland-based traffic data company INRIX, says there are three ways to tackle congestion: Shift people to trains or buses, expand roads, or reduce demand through tools such as pricing.

"It places a price on that road capacity, which, let's face it, in downtown Seattle is pretty scarce. There's not a lot of room to build new roads, and that's one way to match the supply with the demand," Pishue said.

Shefali Ranganathan of Transportation Choices Coalition advocates for transit in Seattle.

"I think there is a potential for a congestion price in this region, with two caveats - one is, we have to design it in a way that users see a value out of it and two, where it produces some sort of benefit," Ranganathan said.
She said toll revenue would have to go for buses or road improvements, which is how the money's spent in London.

Seattle will get a taste of tolls downtown in a couple of years, when people pay to drive in the new State Route 99 tunnel.

And in 2023, expanded light rail to Lynnwood and Redmond will give us new ways in and out of the city.

Transportation analyst Mark Hallenbeck of the Washington State Transportation Center at the University of Washington says congestion pricing, just like the tolls we pay now on SR167 and I-405, would make people hesitate before driving downtown.

"The good thing about congestion pricing is it brings the market price into your transportation decision, which makes you more conscious of how you choose to travel," Hallenbeck said.

Political challenge

No U.S. cities have adopted London-style congestion pricing.

In New York, advocacy groups are calling for tolling cars in Manhattan, although former mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion-pricing plan went nowhere.

In Seattle, some city planning documents make mention of congestion pricing, but city officials say there's no current plan to pursue it.

As the head of Commute Seattle, Jonathan Hopkins works with government and business leaders.

He says if traffic becomes consistently awful, like when a tanker overturned on I-5, the conversation might get serious.

"Who knows whether congestion pricing comes up at some point in the future. I imagine if every day felt like the day the tanker turned over, people would be looking at all tools," Hopkins said.

Cox Media Group